Not My Heart (Human Sasori)
by KatsuNoJutsu95
Summary: An AU where a young Sasori survives a critical heart transplant from an unknown Hidden Leaf ninja. Afterwards he notices some odd side emotional effects that may not be his own, but the other ninja's?
1. Ch 1: The Boy Who Waited

A young boy sat bored, staring out of the window from his hospital bed. He suffered from a weak heart which prevented him from interacting and playing with other children his age. Not many with his condition were known to survive, not without continuous care of medical ninja. They came in every three days to pump more chakra into his frail heart. His large brown eyes were lonely and lacked much spark of life. He had deep red hair the same as his father. He sighed as he watched the other children of his village travelling through the town with their parents. It had been a two years since his own parents died. He wasn't sure from what. His grandmother was always very vague and avoided discussing the subject. A loud knock rekindled the some life in his eyes and he turned to see his four little wooden dolls walking into the room. They were followed by his grandmother. The boy repositioned himself on the bed to face forward, and watch in delight as the puppets jumped up onto the bed.

"Granny Chiyo, you came!" The boy exclaimed. His grandma often came by to visit her grandson and entertain him. She told stories of ninja through puppet shows. This time the dolls were dressed as the foreign ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village. "Now today here, I have the three Legendary Sanin, Lord Jairaya, Lady Tsunade and Lord Orochimaru, the most powerful ninja from the Hidden Leaf."

"And who's that one?" The boy interrupted, pointing a small finger at the doll he noticed was not introduced.

"You'll have to wait for the story." Chiyo replied hastily.

"I hate waiting…" the boy sulked, but nonetheless he fell quiet and let his grandmother proceed with the story.

The Sanin were midway through a battle with whom he learned the fourth puppet was Hanzo the Salamander, when they were interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Chiyo barked.

"We have come to move Sasori Akasuna for his treatment." Lady Chiyo gasped and released her chakra strings. The dolls laid motionless on the sheets.

"Wait here." Chiyo said to the boy. It was a fairly redundant statement, since the boy too weak to walk very far on his own anyway, however she left the room to speak with the informer privately.

"WHAT?!" Chiyo's voice roared from behind the door. Sasori wished he could hear the conversation, it was _his_ life they were talking about. _Has a cure had been found for my condition yet?_ He wondered.

After another minute of quiet talking, Lady Chiyo re-entered the room. A man with grey hair tied back and large round glasses followed suit behind her.

"Hello there, so you are Sasori Akasuna I have heard so much about, you really are young aren't you?" The grey haired man spoke warmly. Sasori nodded, wondering what about his life there was to know.

"Sasori this is Kabuto Yakushi, he will be taking you now to a new hospital where he will give you a cure." Chiyo explained carefully.

"Really?" Sasori's face lit up. "You mean I will be able to be like the other kids and maybe even a ninja?"

"You sure will kiddo, you sure will." Kabuto replied.  
Kabuto helped the young boy walk out to the carriage that awaited them. As they left the room Sasori looked back to wave goodbye to his grandmother, who looked as solemn as ever. Only when their eyes met did a fake smile appear. Why isn't she happy for me?


	2. Ch 2: Paper and Pain

Sasori opened his eyes and found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. He didn't remember walking in, so he figured he must have fallen asleep in the carriage on the way. The air around him was cold, and he thought he heard a continuous pattering of rain outside. He heard a door open and close. Sasori sat up and found he was alone in a large square room on what appeared to be an operating table. 'That someone' must be alerting another person he was awake. While he waited he observed his surroundings further; wooden benches lined the walls of the room except for where the door was and he noticed various tool laying neatly on one bench on his left.

The door opened again and two people walked in. The first man he did not recognise, the second he recognised from one of his grandmother's dolls - Lord Orochimaru. Sasori was about to announce he knew the latter, but was interrupted by two other people entering the room with a third person groaning on a moving table.

The first person was a woman with short deep blue hair and the other was a dark skinned man who seemed to prefer keeping his face covered. The trolley was lined up near his own bench where Sasori gained a better view of the person. He was another boy, as young as himself, except his hair was jet black and straight. The boy's skin was also awfully pale. He wore a black crop top, black pants and a headband on his forehead signifying he was a full-fledged ninja. The boy was gagged and blindfolded with what appeared to be only small squares of paper. Bandages were wrapped around his torso to try and ease a large flesh wound in his side. He was panting as if he had been running a long way and sweat beads dotted his pale skin.

"Let us hurry." A deep voice spoke. It was from the first man that had entered the room. He had short spiky orange hair and what appeared to be piercings on his nose and ears. He radiated command. The woman placed a tag on the pale boy's chest. The boy seemed to quickly figure out he could no longer move anything below his neck and started to panic. Sasori gasped in horror hoping they wouldn't do that to him.

"Oops, he didn't need to see that." The sly voice of Orochimaru spoke. "Put him to sleep, Konan." The woman known as Konan seemed to remember Sasori was in the room and positioned her hand to face him. Sasori clenched his eyes shut in fear that the same fate awaited him. But once the paper hit him he very quickly succumbed to the darkness of sleep. The last thing Sasori remembered was the agonizing screams of the other boy as a kunai dug into his chest.


	3. Ch 3: Meaning of Life

Terrible nightmares haunted Sasori's dreams in the darkness.  
 _The boy he saw from the operating table was crawling towards him on the floor, silently yelling for help. Sasori tried to move towards him but failed. He was sitting in his hospital bed back in the sand village and the sheets were tightly holding his legs down, so he couldn't get up. He could only reach out for the boy in front of him, but that was useless. The boy was on the floor and too far away. So he sat there and just watched the boy on his stomach being swallowed up by a wave of paper that dragged him backwards into the darkness. All Sasori could do was watch…_

When Sasori awoke he felt a dull pain radiating from his chest. He also felt terribly thirsty and tried to sit up. "Aaaghh!" the red head gasped loudly and fell crashing back down to the pillows and held his hands over his heart. The blue haired woman rushed into the room.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

Sasori slowly opened his clenched eyes and nodded. "Can you please get me a glass of water?" he asked. "Sure." When the bluenette left Sasori inspected his chest further. His chest was completely bandaged up, so he began ripping them off. He gasped again when he saw the ugly scarring and stitches forming a circle around where his heart was. His fingers traced root-like chakra arteries that raised his skin. Having enough of looking at the ugly scars, Sasori rested his hand on his chest and gazed up at the ceiling. _What have they done to me? And what about the other boy?_

 _Thud-thud thud-thud_

Sasori then noticed something new. His heart-beat was much stronger than before. He remembered back in the surgery, that other boy screaming. Sasori's stomach sank in realisation. It all made sense, _I have his heart! Arrghh!_ Sasori scratched at his stitches, making them bleed. "I am not a murderer! I didn't chose this! I'd rather die! Get it out of me!" He yelled.

Sasori didn't feel relieved that he would now live healthy. A human life from a village other than his own had been sacrificed for _his_ sake. Konan returned with the glass of water "Stop! Sasori!" She placed the glass down and held his wrists firmly away from his body. Sasori continued to thrash and scream, giving Konan no choice but to restrain his with paper.  
"Listen to me." She spoke coolly. "We had no choice but to save you in this manner. The boy was wounded and already on his death bed."  
Sasori quieted up as he listened to the pretty blue haired lady, however he didn't stop trying to struggle. "So I..."  
"That boy still lives in you."

Sasori still felt a small amount of pity towards the boy he would never know. Sasori had previously believed life was transient, you lived it while you could because you grew up to become a ninja and fight in battles, but now he wasn't so sure. Life now seemed utterly meaningless to be thrown around so carelessly…

Now that the scorpion had finally settled, Konan helped Sasori drink the water. She saw the bandages torn apart strewn all over the bed sheets. "Now get some rest." The nurse stood with the empty glass and turned to leave.

"What is the point of living when death was inevitable?" Sasori asked blankly. His eyes staring at a spot on the ceiling. Konan had not expected such a philosophical question from a boy so young and took a moment before replying.

"Do not let his sacrifice trouble you. Everyone has a purpose, it seems you just yet to find it. " She placed the glass down on the bed side table. "If it hurts, take one of these with water." She pointed to a small purple round pill on the table before leaving.

"You have made an incredible recovery Akasuna," Orochimaru chimed at the boy after reading through the final report Konan had handed the surgeon. Konan was removing the bandages for the final time. "Tomorrow you will working with Kakuzu to rebuild your musc-" he was interrupted by a loud explosion and the room shaking like a mild earthquake tremor.

"SIR! LORD OROCHIMARU SAMA!" A grey haired man came bursting through the doors and fell to his knees like he was bowing to a king. "Lord Orochimaru, bad news! The experiments have all escaped!"

"WHAT!?" Orochimaru exclaimed angrily and stormed out with Kabuto straggling behind.

"What's happening?" Sasori looked up at Konan.

"It seems like you are in for ninja training with Kakuzu first thing tomorrow." She replied surprisingly calmly. Sasori opened his mouth to protest that he had barely walked for the past three years but Konan interrupted. "Welcome to the Akatsuki, I am giving you a chrash coarse so listen to me carefully. I will only say it once. We are a secret military research organisation dedicated to creating the best soldiers we can to offer our services to one day create peace in a new world. We gave you not only a new heart to survive, but one such able to support much greater amounts of chakra than a normal ninja – a 'superheart'. "

"Then who are the test subjects?" Sasori enquired.

"They were human-animal experiments to see if human soldiers could handle the instincts of beasts, therefore they have two 'superhearts' working together so their chakra production is beyond superhuman. When in animal form they have a certain number of tails indicting their strength and order they were created with the one-tail being the weakest and nine-tails the most powerful, so we call them tailed beasts or Jinchuuriki. The plan was to reach 10 tails but it seems Orochimaru failed. Once the five great nations discover their existence, there will be a fight to obtain their power, which is why we will need to train you to help us bring them all nine back."

"Do you really expect me to fight for you?" The boy asked irritatedly.  
"You have no other place to go and you owe us your life. However you will be granted spare time to do whatever you wish." Konan replied.


	4. Ch 4: Blonde Bomb

Many years passed and Sasori became a naturally adept ninja, excelling in strategy and medical ninjutsu and specializing in war puppetry. While he was never achieved the same physical strength as all the other Akatsuki members, he was the strongest he had ever felt. He was fully capable of taking down small villages single-handedly for missions as well as in a personal search of new puppet material. A few new members were also recruited, including Itachi Uchiha. When he was recruited he had an experiment on his eyes to increase his psychic eye abilities. His partner Kisame, was the first animal experiment. Since the escape of the test subjects Orochimaru had gone awol, still yet to be seen return to the Akatsuki, and because of this, Sasori since held a grudge for his disappearance.

-Time Skip-

Sasori walked the halls of the Akatsuki secret medical facility, to the meeting room to hear out his next mission. He was surprised to see Itachi and Kisame walk in behind him since missions did not ever require more than two members.

"Good you are all here," Pain spoke. "Your next assignment is to recruit a new patient and Sasori's new partner. He has a habit of chewing clay to make explosives which is why we want to recruit him. You will find him in the Iwa shrine in Iwagakure, take caution leave immediately."

 _'He's cute. Wait what? He is just going to be my associate'._ I Sasori's heart skipped a beat when it saw the young boy, something he had never felt his heart or his previous heart to do. Sasori had never cared particularly for anyone male or female so he could not explain his reaction to some kid. It was a good thing he had Hiruko to shield his expression of surprise. Ignoring the feeling only made the feeling worse, he needed to distract himself somehow.

"Leave me alone, all I want to do is focus on my art yeah." The boy spoke without even turning to look at his visitors. The boy spat some clay into his hands in addition to the clay he was already moulding.

"Art?" Sasori replied instinctively, he didn't know anyone else who was interested. Sasori's eyes gazed at his hair shimmered in the sunlight that shone through the open end of the shrine.

"Yeah that's what I said. I mould this clay and it becomes the source of my beautiful creations! Would you like to see, how beautiful something transient can be hm?" the boy held up a moulded spider.

Sasori chuckled to himself, _'He was just like me back then, but now I know I was utterly wrong!'_

"You need to come with us" Itachi spoke calmly ignoring the bomber's speech.

"Or what?" Deidara turned around finally, his mood seemingly destroyed in an instant. Sasori then awed at his vibrant blue eyes. Maybe Sasori didn't realise he considered this type of look perfection and should design his puppets after him?

"There is no 'or what', we are taking you." Kisame added.

"Oh I see you guys want to fight!" Deidara stood up. "You'll see what true art is! HAH!" The bomber threw his clay spider at Itachi who jumped to intersect the bomb with a kunai and the bomb exploded against the wall of the shrine. The next minute was quiet as Itachi had the young boy paralysed in a genjutsu finishing off the fight effortlessly.

"All done, let's go." Itachi announced. To Sasori's relief, the newly recruited Deidara walked behind the Akatsuki group so he wasn't staring at him the whole way back, however that didn't stop the puppeteer from thinking about him.

Once they returned to the Akatsuki medical facility Deidara was immediately taken into his own surgery and Sasori wondered what sick procedure Pain had planned for him.


	5. Ch 5: Experiments

**Chapter 5: Experiments**

One of Sasori's interests to pass the time was reading up on the Akatsuki's medical research and notes. He had learned some of the medical practices through his medical ninjutsu training but was curious to read up upon the details of the more forbidden experiments. _So what's this?_ The next scroll he managed to steal from the volts detailed the organ transplant experiments. _It seems I wasn't the first host…_ Sasori read on.

"Failed tests were due to the rejection of the donor's organ unless the blood type was the same…  
… side effects of successful treatment include weight changes, change in diet or hosts can inherit some of the traits displayed by the donor, tch how absurd! I merely think Deidara's a perfect specimen to become part of my collection." Sasori had convinced himself this had to be the reason for his interest in the Blonde during the past couple of days. Since recruiting the young terrorist, his thoughts had been all over him. It annoyed him however that the blonde knew how to annoy him.

Once Deidara out of immediate intensive care and into rehabilitation, he was sent to meet his partner he would now be working with. The young artist hated the thought he was going to be partnered with someone so old and ugly. He looked like the type to give lectures on life… The blonde didn't care to knock and walked straight into the red-head's room. He had enough decency to close the door behind him before finding the closest chair to slump in. He looked around the room looking for the ugly man. He saw him by the wall slumed against the wall.

 _Oh great… he's probably a drunk…_ the bomber thought to himself.

"You could have knocked." A younger and smoother voice than Deidara was expecting spoke. Deidara stared at the man lying on the floor, it didn't even make a move.

"Yeah… where are you show yourself." Just like every other blonde this one was already striking on Sasori's nerves.

"Ordering me around now are you? Tch stupid brat…" Sasori walked out of his workshop and into the living room of his quarters. Deidara's eye's widened at the shock of seeing a considerably more handsome and younger, redhead.

"Well this is not what I expected. If you're the real Sasori then who's old fart?" Deidara threw a look over to Hiruko.

"That is my puppet Hiruko" Sasori growled. "I initially had an interest in you because you liked art but now you'll have to convince me." This was half-lie half-truth since his heart decided to beat faster the longer he looked at the stupid kid.

"Hmpf"

"What did they do to you?" Sasori asked noticing Deidara had bandages on his hands.

"Why do you care?" The blonde spat obviously angry avoiding eye contact with the puppet master.

"I asked because I know everyone here including myself is an experiment, what did they do to you?"

Deidara sighed and began to unbandaged his hands. "This, hm."

He raised up his palms to reveal mouths fully equip with teeth and tongues had been stitched on to each palm. Sasori walked up and brushed over the raw stitches causing the mouths close up. "They said it would help me make my explosives in battle, yeah."

"How curious, you could do a lot with these." Sasori smirked. Deidara pulled his hands away from the scorpion's grasp. "You perv you already want me to do things to you." When Sasori backed off Deidara continued. "I showed you mine, now show me your freak show, yeah."

"You're going to have to earn that right brat."

"What too embarrassed? Has no one told you that you have a cute face?" Deidara asked seriously.

"Huh are you?"

"What if I am, yeah" Deidara crossed his arms without the slightest hint of embarrassment.

"Tch… fine." _What in the world am I doing?_ Sasori unbuttoned his Akatsuki cloak revealing his healed scars circling his heart. He now had tattooed his name in Kanji on it.

"Hmm." It was the blonde's turn to feel the rising chakra veins from the red head's heart. Sasori felt his skin tingle, and heart beat faster. It felt surprisingly good. The blonde looked up to see a faint blush. "That's enough." Sasori ripped away the blonde's wrist.

"Are you really that sensitive? Heh, I don't think I can resist that face, hm." The blonde's fingers traced over Sasori's scars. Suddenly a wet tongue lashed out and darted away as quick as it came. The scorpion shuddered, and hit the bomber's hand away.

"That's disgusting..." He stepped away and put his shirt back down, then used the fabric to rub away the cold wet patch of his skin. "Get out, I don't have time to mess about."


	6. Ch 6: Infiltration

When Deidara had recovered sufficiently from his own surgery, Pain sent the artist duo on their first paired mission.

 _"You two are to go to the Hidden Leaf Village and collect any medical scrolls you can find and bring them to me. And keep an eye out for any signs of Jinjuriki presence. If you come across one, capture them only if it is possible. " Pain's voice echoed._

The trek from the Hidden Rain to the Leaf Village was four days. Four days was more than long enough for Sasori to lose his patience with his partner and for the redhead to wish that the mission could go faster. The brat would not accept his opinion on both art and way of life. They argued none stop for hours on end and at no point did the blonde back down or tire. He seemed to _enjoy_ the bickering!

The duo entered the village easily enough. Upon Deidara's recovery he quickly learned his explosive creations could now be animated and he used this to his advantage, plus the Hidden Leaf guards were too curious for their own good.

It was almost dawn when the Hidden Leaf gate guards changed over their shift. The eyes of those finishing were half lidded and weary, and walked slowly back towards their homes to sleep, while the fresh guards stretched and yawned trying to awaken as quickly as possible. Not 10 minutes into their shift they heard sounds that had them straining their ears and eyes.

 _Poof! Poof! Poof!_

"Hey what was that?" One of the guards exclaimed. It was no doubt the sound of a summoning jutsu, but for what and how many? The guards saw brief puffs of smoke scattered in the forest around the gates.

"Keep a look out! They could be anywhere! And watch out for the one who summoned them!"

"Right, we're on it!"

 _Silence_

There was suddenly a scurry and rustle of leaves over to the left end of the gate.

"Over there! What is it?!" The men raised their kunai as they saw clay spiders emerge from the undergrowth.  
 _KABOOM!_ An explosion twice as strong as a paper bomb erupted from behind the ninja on the left.

"Huh?" The ninja turned to face his comrade stationed on the right side of the gate. He gasped shakily, his comrade's head had been blown before he was able to yell.

"And he let his guard down too, hm. Katsu!" The blonde mocked smugly as the second guard fell with a soft thud.

"You need to find a way to make them a little quieter, anyone nearby would have heard that." Sasori growled. The blonde ignored him and the two continued their infiltration. Ti Sasori's surprise, there was hardly a person on the sleepy streets, in fact there were more cats stalking for mice. Dawn had fully broken now and the shops had all of their shutters closed, except for the few cafes that were opening up for breakfast.

"Hey you!" An unknown voice called and quickened footsteps could be heard approaching the duo from behind.

"Hm?" The duo turned around. A teenage boy of around 17 stood before them. He had long dark brown hair tied up low behind him, wore white attire and white eyes of the Byakugan to match.

"This is odd, I swear I know this chakra as someone else, however it appears that we have never met. Sorry to bother." He turned to leave.

"You are from the Hyuuga clan correct? You can read individual chakra signatures like a fingerprint if I remember correctly hm." Deidara inquired.

The boy stopped, "That is correct, but this is very strange…" The Hyuuga replied.

"Neji!" A blonde girl ran up, in Sasori's opinion a female version of Deidara, if not more beautiful. A pang of awe similar to when he first saw Deidara welled up in his chest. Her eyes and hair were much paler than Dei's, but that somehow made her look more pure. The way she ran was careful and delicate as if she was the epitome of a fragile flower. "You suddenly ran off, who are these guys, do you know them?"

"No and I was just leaving." Neji replied. Sasori's eyes snapped back to Neji when he realised he had been staring at the blonde girl. He gave his partner a nudge with his elbow and turned to leave. "Let's keep moving."

Neji continued with a grim expression when the two men were out of hearing range. "I have a strange feeling he is involved with _his_ disappearance."

"What?!" Ino gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth. "I-I don't understand!"

"Neither do I but I can't ignore this feeling." Neji's eyes did not waver from staring at the red-head's heart and chakra.

"What was he on about?" Deidara inquired as they continued to wander the Hidden Leaf for the infirmary.

"I have no idea," the puppeteer replied enthused, "and frankly I don't care."

"So you do know." The blonde continued to prod.

"What part of 'I have no idea' don't you understand?" The scorpion snapped.

"The part where you 'don't care'." Deidara planned his words carefully. "You wouldn't shrug something like this off so easily without already having looked into it at some point, hm?"

Sasori shot a deadly glare. "Just drop it already. I found the infirmary over there. Quit blabbering and focus on these scrolls." Of coarse Sasori knew the truth, but he had no reason to provide his whole life story to Deidara. He was going to live for eternity to repay the boy who gave him a second chance at life. Nothing more, nothing less.

"What about the giiirl?" Deidara emphasised.

"What about her?" Sasori replied flatly. _Sigh and he's the one acting like girl trying to catch the latest gossip himself…_

"You like her don't you? Don't lie I saw you staring, hm." The blonde chuckled.

"You know I don't like other people,"

Deidara let out a sigh. "Liar."

"You're impossible to talk to."

"I'm impossible? It's you who's avoiding answering my questions."

"Maybe I don't like talking you brat."

"When did you learn to joke?"

"I give up…" If he had been travelling in Hiruko he would have whipped his tail at the  
blonde by now.

~~~*~~~  
As the artists slowly approached the hospital and the redhead went over the plan again. Sasori ensured that Deidara had not forgotten any details. The scorpion planned to carry out this part of the mission his way and avoid attracting any unnecessary attention. The blonde's way of searching was far too bold for his liking.

Once they reached the doors, Sasori slipped out a small gas canister into the foyer. The can hissed out a yellow gas and span around like a grounded firework. The desk clerk's gasped in alert, but was short lived when the paralysis took effect. When the gas cleared the room looked more like a modern history museum; everyone who inhaled the gas where frozen in place like living statues. The victims desperately tried to yell but no sound came out. It was a miracle they were at least able to breathe.

"We have an hour before this wears off, don't mess this up" Sasori stated then immediately darted off to search for the vaults. Deidara smirked in response.

The vault when they finally found it, was below ground on the lowest floor. The room was locked by a large solid steel chakra sealed vault door, and signed 'contains precious goods'. Sasori tried a few different hand seals he had learned (which opened vaults and other doors back in the Akatsuki lair,) but the door remained firm.

"Looks like I am gonna' to have to blow it open," The bomber stated to Sasori's annoyance.

"Just don't go too over the top, Konaha isn't supposed to know we are here." Sasori reminded.

"Yeah I know, but I can't completely promise, hm." The blonde's hands spat out a small centipede, in which he enlarged with a puff of smoke. The now oversized insect crawled around the edge of the door. Deidara jumped back several meters and the redhead followed suit. The explosion thankfully didn't send the roof along with the entire rest of the building caving in on them but the door did. The crashing of solid metal on the concrete floor bellowed through the halls and it wouldn't surprise Sasori if people outside the hospital heard.

"Tch, now you've done it!" the puppeteer growled. With no time like the present, they dashed inside, knowing they'd have about a minute before the nearest staff raised the alarm for Konaha ninja to investigate. Sasori quickly whipped out a scroll and an ink brush and scribbled down some words. "Scroll Summoning: Duel puppets" Two puffs of smoke emerged and two ink outlines of puppets appeared before morphing into solid hand crafted forms. A sack was also tied between them. They scooped up all the scrolls and parchment in their sights and stashed them into the sack. They had no time to unseal each and every one of them to find the specific scrolls they were looking for, so this was their only option.

"I'm done my side," Sasori called out to the blonde, "same here, Danna!" The redhead reverse summoned his puppets along with the sack of scrolls and the duo ran out.

 _There are no windows… we can't jump out. Looks like we go out the same way we entered._ The duo headed back towards the stairs at the opposite end of the hall. Deidara ran in front, his hands chewing and moulding more clay in preparation for an ambush. Four ninja appeared from the stairs, kunai raised charging at them.

"Don't let them escape!" one of them yelled.

"Hehe don't insult us, HAH!" Two snakes shot out his palms which sent the Konaha ninja jumping to the wall, the snakes then split in half and found a prey each to explode on. The duo continued up to the next floor where they smashed out a window for a quick getaway. Or so they thought.

"Eight-trigram vacuum palm!" Neji called out.

"Ugh!"

As soon as the duo jumped out of the building they were simultaneously knocked down to the ground by a blast of air. The summoning scroll Sasori used for summoning was blasted out of his hand. The ink brush that was stored in the hollow of the scroll flew out, so both the scroll and brush were out of arm's reach of the artist. Without them he couldn't summon his puppets.

"Shikamaru! Now!" The Huga called.

"Shadow stitching jutsu!" another voice yelled.

"Hey what did you do to me? Let me go!" The blonde verbally struggled, but his body was frozen in place.

"That's what you get for potentially harming innocents!" Shikamaru stated and forced the blonde's jaw shut.

Sasori was also immobilised, lying spread eagled flat on his back by a paralysis jutsu. He could hear footsteps approaching him. When in view he saw it was the white eyed shinobi from before. "You not only have his chakra but you have his jutsu style as well. Would you like to tell me what you have done with him?"

Sasori glared the young teen straight in the eyes, mildy annoyed at his persistence. The jutsu cast on his body appeared to stop at his neck, they obviously wanted him to talk. "How should I know?"

"How could you not know?" Neji retorted.

"I was granted life in exchange for your precious friend." The scorpion sighed irritated with the interrogation already. It was true that he knew another boy's life was sacrificed for his own, but it was also true he had no clue who that boy was.

"Gentle fist!" The boy jabbed a finger on the redhead's shoulder, shooting a small amount of chakra which caused a sharp shooting pain down the red head's arm.

"That wasn't very gentle." The Scorpion mocked.

Neji ignored the scorpion and pressed on. "The brush and scroll, how and where did you get them?"

Sasori sighed knowing his information was useless to them. "They were given to me by my mentor. Now I have told you all I know, you're wasting your time, so release me." Neji jabbed him several more times with incredible speed on his chakra nodes. With so many chakra lines disturbed in seconds, it was difficult for even Sasori to keep up. Neji hit a small blow to the heart. Enough to stop him producing chakra for a while.

"Careful. You don't want to destroy the last physical remains of your comrade."

On that comment, the Huga did stop. "So it is true? You have his heart?"

"Let me try!" A young but strong female voice sounded. It the blonde girl from earlier Ino, Sasori remembered.

"Alright, be careful in there!" Neji added.

 _Stab._

A final jab with the gentle fist on a node near his neck sent a shooting pain of chakra scrambling in his head momentarily. "Mind transfer jutsu!" The weirdest sensation came upon the scorpion mere milliseconds before he could reconnect his chakra. He felt his mind go numb. Recent memories flashed in his head before realising he was being probed. The memories were in rewind from the present and going backwards in time. The memories started from the Infiltration the leaf and its infirmary; the four days leading up to the event; the meeting with Pain; the brief fooling around with Deidara; then his years of training. This point appeared to be of some interest to Ino, as the memories slowed to watch clips in full…

 _"_ _So tell me, what are your strengths?" Kakuzu's deep voice rumbled._

 _"_ _I've honestly never battled before, did you forget how terminally ill I was?" The boy sneered._

 _"_ _Well then, we will have a sparring match_ _and I will tell you." The older man replied. "Starting with tai-jutsu, but don't fret I'll go easy on you."_

 _The boy didn't reply and held his fists up in the air. He honestly had little idea what he was going to do and was fully aware he was no match for this brute, but being told that he was going to go easy on him didn't go down well with Sasori's pride, even if he was nervous._

 _The older man ran at him then vanished, leaving Sasori surprised and exposed for a moment. He then heard footsteps and breathing to his right, he turned to see a fist shooting at him right as it collided into his arm. The boy was sent shooting across the grass. He quickly got back up and focused on following the man's movements, using all of his senses. While he slow he quickly learned the man's pattern and began start dodging the blows. Towards the end he attempted counter attacks, which if and when they landed were weak and were unlikely to show a bruise on Kakuzu's tough skin._

 _"_ _Alright, I have seen enough." Kakuzu announced after pulling a surprise attack from the earth below. Sasori panted as he waited in anticipation._

 _"_ _You have a good eye but no strength to back it up. Well move on…"_

The memories skipped over to another time. _Sasori was alone in his room sitting on the edge of his bed. He wanted to see if his puppet master jutsu was any stronger now he gained new strength. He concentrated on accumulating chakra in his fingertips until he had enough to form strings. So far it was normal, the strings extended to a few meters. Sasori looked for something to hold and manipulate. He gazed over his workbench but unfortunately his belongings were few, and he had not yet made a puppet. Moving slabs of wood had little amusement, so lifting and opening up a book would have to do. He guided his strings towards the book shelf and attached them to a random book. The strings attached and successfully started pulling the book. Sasori smiled to himself, then twang! The stings broke. Slightly annoyed and baffled, Sasori tried again. This time exerting a bit more chakra._

 _Twang!_

 _The stings burst without forming._

 _Getting more flustered Sasori kept trying over and over like he was trying to ignite a firelighter that was low on fuel. His chakra made sparks and his fingertips began to hurt from forcing chakra. It was then he decided to stop trying, for now._

 _"_ _I am here to help improve your ninjutsu, show me, what can you do?" Konan asked._

 _"_ _I was raised to use the secret puppetry ninjutsu, however I recently learned that is no longer possible." Sasori was almost gritting his teeth as he spoke._

 _"_ _Hmm, interesting but not surprising." She pulled out a large scroll from under her sleeve. She walked closer and held out the scroll. "Try using these," she insisted._

 _"_ _Huh?" Sasori reluctantly accepted the scroll and must have been looking at it dumbly when Konan continued to explain._

 _"_ _There's a brush inside, use it to draw a weapon."_

 _'_ _This is ridiculous…' Sasori thought to himself, yes he claimed himself to be an artist but not in this way!_

 _He drew out the brush and opened the scroll. He drew the first weapon that came to his mind - a kunai. To the red head's surprise the ink kunai emerged from the scroll. It hovered in the air and Sasori waved his hand to see what it would do. The kunai went flying through the air as quickly as if he had thrown it. Konan stepped aside to let it pass and the kunai crashed to the floor in a splatter of ink._

 _'_ _Good it worked,' Konan thought to herself. "Now fight me." Konan stated eagerly. Paper was peeling off of her skin and were folding into tiny paper shuriken. Like with Kakuzu, Sasori and Konan sparred. This new jutsu came surprisingly more natural to the scorpion, though he felt more disappointment than grateful. It irritated him he couldn't use his puppetry but instead excel in a foreign technique. He felt in his mind every move he made wasn't his, running around scribbling a drawing that would burst into life and attack. However his chakra agreed to the ninjutsu in a heartbeat. After his taijutsu training with Kakuzu, Sasori learned his body was rather fast and agile. He honed in on this to his advantage, dodging paper shuriken all over the shot and quickly drawing counter attacks where possible._

 _"_ _How is this possible?" Sasori growled, unable to contain the question any longer._

 _"_ _How is what possible?" Konan replied dully._

 _"_ _I am excelling in a jutsu I have never even heard of, yet my own jutsu fail." He restrained himself from yelling like a child having a tantrum, but he didn't feel far from it, he needed to understand._

 _"_ _You have much to learn about chakra. The heart is the source, not the body. Since you no longer have your original heart you must learn to use the chakra from this new heart, however unnatural it may seem. Who knows, you may one day learn to combine the two."_


	7. Ch 7: End

Ino searched deeper, where she came across what she was looking for, evidence of Sai. Sasori was lying on the operation table when through Sasori's eyes Ino saw him. Ino gasped as she saw her childhood crush rolled in on a moving table. He was clutching at a deep stab wound that was bleeding profusely at his sides. His beautiful pale skin was paler than before (if that was possible), and drenched in sweat. _Sai!_ She screamed, but the boy didn't hear her. Of course not, she was only watching a memory. In horror she watched the operation. She observed and memorised the faces of those working on the transplant. Three of them she had already seen in later memories, two who trained Sasori in combat and the other was supposedly the leader of the operation. The forth she didn't recognise. Ino then pressed on further, searching for evidence to see who had taken her lover down before all this. Nothing. The boy had lived day after day in a bed in Suna.

On another unremarkable day the world around her began trembling violently. Sasori was fighting to get her out of his head. The memory eventually shattered and Ino awoke back in her own physical body.

"Ino? Ino! Ino!"

Ino looked up, pale and in a cold sweat.

"What happened?!" Neji asked forcefully.

"Yeah what happened? Tell us!" The nosy blonde Naruto added, who had arrived at some point while Ino was in Sasori's mind.

Ino gazed over at Sasori to see Kiba and Akamaru holding the redhead down, and Choji seated with a few of Naruto's shadow clones on the struggling blonde. The blonde intruder was also gagged to muffle his untiring mouth. It seemed Shikamaru's shadow stitching had worn off during her absence.

"H-he….." She couldn't form the words as she burst into tears. "This man... he's all that is left of Sai!"

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto whined.

"Please explain Ino." Neji added more calmly than Naruto.

"Y-you were r-right Neji…." Ino stuttered.

"I was? I see." Neij enquired, urging her to continue.

"H-he has his heart." She trembled.

"What do you mean physically or in a gay way?" Kiba interrupted, still completely confused by Ino's explanation. Woof! Akamaru barked as if to support Kiba's opinion.

"Yeah that makes no sense to me either…" Naruto pouted.

"Shut it Kiba, you not helping!" Neji snapped. "But for now we need to let Ino rest, she looks like she's been through hell."

"Huh?! In that case we need to go destroy those guys that did this to him!" Naruto yelled, suddenly all wound up.

"He's… he's got Sai's heart and chakra…" Ino's voice trailed off as she slid into unconsciousness.

"WHAT?!" Kiba, Naruto and Deidara all exclaimed.

"She's right, it explains the identical chakra reading this Akatsuki member has to Sai." Neji confirmed.

"Why didn't you say that before Neji?" Kiba asked.

"Because I had to confirm. I don't understand why, but I am sure Ino will tell us every detail when she's calmed down." Neji continued. "We all know Ino and Sai were in love. So let's wait for her to tell us when she wakes up."

 _iEpilogue./i_

"So you are really someone else? And you iwere/i in love with the blondie." Deidara mocked sitting on his partner's lap on the scorpion's bed.

"Huh?" Sasori woke up groaning a little bit. The last thing he remembered was a loud bang and a blinding light.

"Well you're in luck~," Deidara chimed. "For iI/i am your blonde now." A long finger traced along the scorpion's jaw. His other hand had found the redhead's scars on his chest, causing his breathing to hitch.

"Are you really that sensitive? Heh, I don't think I can resist that face, hm." The blonde leant in and suddenly kissed the redhead while his palm mouth kissed Sasori's chest.

Deidara pulled away "Too cute, yeah".

"Brat this is a kiss…" Sasori pulled the hand from out under his shirt to kiss mouth palm instead of the bomber's real lips to piss off the blonde. The blonde had stepped over a line and Sasori couldn't allow him to get away with it. Teasing people amused the puppet master anyhow. 

Deidara lent down to close the space between the red head. He cherished the taste of his partner's lips. To the blonde's surprise Sasori returned the kiss…

End.


End file.
